Cedar Street Gardens

Your Guide

The Cedar Street Gardens are a worthy example of how an Urban Wild site can be productive while still preserving much of the site’s natural elements. The gardens were designed by MILA Landscape Architects.

Because the gardens divide the residential block, you can access the site either along Cedar Street through the Allan Crite Community Garden or along Linwood Street through the Highland Park 400 Garden. An unaltered urban wild links the two gardens. If you enter via Cedar Street you follow an uphill path through the urban wild that will lead to the back of the Cooper Community Center.

Lush Plantings

This community garden, started in 1974, offers neighbors the opportunity to have a garden plot for flowers or vegetables. There are a variety of plants in this garden. As you walk along Cedar Street, their color and fragrance supply the senses with feelings of relaxation and spark the imagination.

Image: Kenya Thompson

Gather in the Urban Wild

The Cedar Street urban wild provides visitors with a place to enjoy nature. This area is designated for leisure or events. Follow the gravel path into the site and to the right and you will find a mini-orchard of cherry and apple trees.

Image: Kenya Thompson

Step into the Woods

The puddingstone steps will steer you to a sloped wooded area. This section of the urban wild acts as a connector between the two gardens. Here you may see a few birds in and around a large raspberry bush. Continue up the hill and you will enter the Highland Park 400 Garden.

Image: Kenya Thompson

Highland Park 400 Garden

The Highland Park 400 Garden is a part of The Edward L. Cooper Community Garden and Learning Center. This garden is specifically set aside for the elderly in the community.

Image: Kenya Thompson

40 x 40

On most days you will see a gardener tending to their plot. An average plot is around forty square feet.

Image: Kenya Thompson

Trellis Gate

The garden is elevated off the main street by a retaining wall. The entrance into the garden is accented by the arching trellis and white iron railings. Look up into the distance and see the cupola of the iconic Fort Hill tower in the distance.

Image: Kenya Thompson

Community Living Room

This space is treated like an outdoor living room and is open to the public. It is simple and symmetrical in design with its outer edge planted with perennials and shrubs. There is a commemorative rose granite memorial in the center of the lawn honoring a dear friend of the garden.